The ABC Murders (1991)

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Lore & Background

The first victim, 16-year-old Colleen Walker of Sawtell, New South Wales, was last seen alive on 13 September 1990, walking away from a party in The Mission. Thomas Jay Hart, a local labourer who later became the prime suspect, was noted to have been loitering around the party house. Walker's body has never been located, although in April 1991 articles of her clothing were later found weighed down by rocks in the Nambucca River. On 4 October 1990, Walker's cousin, four-year-old Evelyn Greenup, disappeared after a party at her grandmother's house. On 27 April 1991, Greenup's skeletal remains were found in bushland near Congarinni Road. An autopsy noted that a skull injury was 'consistent with a forceful penetration by a sharp instrument'. On 31 January 1991, 16-year-old Clinton Speedy-Duroux went missing after a party at The Mission. He was last seen on the morning of 1 February, and had stayed with his girlfriend in a yellow Viscount caravan used by the prime suspect. On 18 February 1991, Speedy-Duroux's remains were discovered in bushland near Congarinni Road about seven kilometres outside Bowraville. A pillowcase from the prime suspect's caravan was located underneath his clothing.

In Their Own Story

Colleen was the first of the Bowraville children to vanish, and her case was treated in isolation by local police, who categorised her disappearance as a likely runaway. Colleen's family rejected this view. Concerned for her safety, members of the local community, alongside Catholic priest Bernie Ryan, established an office where residents could document their memories of the night Colleen went missing. Despite compelling evidence such as Colleen's intention to depart the following morning, her packed belongings, and her positive mood, local authorities insisted that the majority of teenage disappearances are runaways. Members of Evelyn's family also encountered significant issues when reporting Evelyn missing, and police initially refused to take a statement or report the 4-year-old as missing. In a statement to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice, Evelyn's aunt stated, '... they just kept asking us where she was. They thought we had sent her up to Queensland. They just wouldn't listen to us when we said she had disappeared.' Clinton's disappearance prompted a more immediate response from police, with officers visiting the suspect's caravan later that day. By the time officers arrived, the bedding had been removed. The caravan was officially searched on February 7, six days after Clinton had disappeared. A crucial additional witness account, now referred to as the 'Norco Corner' evidence, further implicated possible foul play. On the early morning of February 1, two truck drivers observed a white man standing over a barefoot Indigenous teenage boy beside a red car. This witness sighting was reported to law enforcement at the time but was not pursued by the original investigative team and never reached the courts.

Reader's Guide

Police eventually agreed that the disappearances were likely criminal, but rejected the idea that the cases were directly linked, calling in the NSW Child Mistreatment Unit to investigate the community. After Clinton and Evelyn's bodies were found, the case officially became a homicide investigation, but the investigation was not transferred to a homicide squad, and the Child Mistreatment Unit was ordered to continue on the case, despite having zero experience with homicide investigations. Several distinct similarities led investigators to focus on a single prime suspect, Thomas Jay Hart, a 25-year-old, white, local labourer. On 8 April 1991, Hart was arrested for the murder of Speedy-Duroux. On 16 October 1991, while out on bail awaiting trial, Hart was arrested and charged with the murder of Greenup. Despite the prosecution intending to try the cases together, Justice Badgery-Parker ruled that the trials for Clinton and Evelyn's murders had to be held separately, as the law at the time restricted the use of coincidence (aka similar fact) evidence. This meant that evidence from one case could not be used in the other, posing a significant challenge for the prosecution. Hart was acquitted following trials in 1994 and 2006. On 13 September 2018, the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal decided that the man could not be retried for the murders. On 22 March 2019, the High Court of Australia refused an application by the Attorney General of New South Wales to bring an appeal against that decision.

Did You Know?

• All three victims were Aboriginal and disappeared after parties in Bowraville's Aboriginal community, an area known as The Mission.
• Colleen Walker's body has never been located, but articles of her clothing were found weighed down by rocks in the Nambucca River in April 1991.
• Evelyn Greenup was only four years old when she disappeared on 4 October 1990; her skeletal remains were found on 27 April 1991.
• A pillowcase from the prime suspect's caravan was located underneath Clinton Speedy-Duroux's clothing when his remains were discovered.
• The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal decided on 13 September 2018 that the prime suspect could not be retried for the murders.